The Mitsuoka Orochi is considered by many to be one of the ugliest cars ever made. However, a new custom one has surfaced courtesy of Liberty Walk, the tuning house that specializes in extreme widebody kits. And dare we say it, it doesn’t look half bad.
If you don’t know Mitsuoka, they are a bit like the Mansory of Japan. They usually take an existing model of, say, Nissan, and add bodywork and customization of Mitsuoka’s own design. Their flagship model, the Orochi, is a parts-box car with parts from Honda, Mazda, and Suzuki, powered by a 3.3-liter Toyota V6 and a five-speed transmission – the same one from a Solara – center-mounted and real wheels.
That’s all well and good, but the Orochi, named after a dragon from Japanese mythology, is always about how he looks. To be honest, we don’t see many dragons there. A Lovecraftian deep-sea creature that may have been trodden by Godzilla.
In any case, this Liberty Walk-modified Orochi, posted on founder Wataru Kato’s social media accounts, is the first decent one we’ve seen. That’s partly due to the fact that the store’s signature look – whether applied to a Supra, Land Cruiser or Ferrari – is all about extremes, and few cars look as extreme as the Orochi in stock form. (shown in the gallery below).
Liberty Walk’s signature fender flares actually adhere quite well to the Orochi’s wheel studs. The front lip and side skirts, not to mention the low ride height, help fill in some of the weirder organic contours in the original’s design. Also, given the giant race car wing on it, the bizarre vents and hood scoops on the Orochi look more at home.
In addition, Liberty Walk finished it in the livery of their current drift car, a rotary drive Mazda S15 Nissan Silvia. That Silvia herself was a tribute to an older Silvia (sold as the Nissan 200SX stateside) Group 5 race car from the 1980s. But I digress. The point is, while this may not be a race car, the racing gear helps offset the Orochi’s, ah, unique bodywork. We never thought adding more to an already busy design would help, but in this case, more is more.
The Liberty Walk Orochi will make its live debut at the Tokyo Auto Salon this weekend.